Worldcrunch
-OpEd- BEIJING — On June 9, U.S. company XpressWest suddenly announced that it would end the joint venture agreement that it had signed with China Railway International to build a high-speed rail linking Las Vegas and Los Angeles. The U.S. firm said its decision to terminate the relationship with China Railway International was based “primarily […]
PARIS — The fateful day has arrived. Voters in the United Kingdom go to the polls Thursday to decide if they should stay or should they go from the familiar but increasingly unpopular arms of the European Union. The consequences of an potential “Brexit” extend beyond Britain, as the EU would lose a major economic […]
Venezuela, a land that made 19th-century travelers marvel at its natural treasures, has become one of the last places any tourist would visit these days.
If the UK leaves the European Union, the members of the free market camp in the EU would be severely outnumbered.
Signing a petition challenging Donald Trump’s right to run for U.S. president is one bad good idea. A novelist who lived through Balkan tragedies knows this well.
An estimated 150 Kenyan soldiers were killed five months ago in an al-Shabab ambush in Somalia, a tragedy made all the more troubling by the fact that authorities in Nairobi are mysteriously mum about it.
Europe has seen its relative economic and military power decline for decades, but its “soft power” has held strong. But even that is now at risk.
Chased from their homes and communities, many transgender women in Colombia seek refuge in a four-block area in Santa Fe, in downtown Bogotá.
KIEV — In real life, Nadiya Savchenko’s eyes are neither large nor blue. But on welcome posters splashed across Kiev Airport recently with the slogan #freesavchenko, the doctored photos of the just released air force pilot — who was captured by Russia and elevated to heroine status back home during her long imprisonment — played […]
BEIJING — China has received a string of recent visits from African government and business officials, including Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, in April, and Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi, who came in May accompanied by officials from his national petroleum company. The president of the Algerian national oil company also made a trip to China of […]
The worst mass shooting in recent U.S. history has proven to be a litmus test for the two top candidates in the race to the White House. When a gunman pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group opened fire at a gay club in Orlando, Florida, killing 49 people and wounding 53 last weekend, the […]
-Essay- BERLIN — “No other place recalls so vividly the fragility of democracy in Europe in the 20th century.” On the streets of Berlin, passersby may notice this line etched on a building plaque in German, French and English. It can be found in the finance ministry complex that used to house Nazi Germany’s Ministry […]
-Analysis- PARIS — Little is known about the financing of terror. Where does it come from? What part did it play in the Paris shootings and Brussels bombings? Are we able to fight it effectively? We are, on all counts, poorly equipped to deal with this challenge. In France and our neighboring countries, there is […]
For Syrians able to escape the horrors of war, Europe is the preferred destination. But some have ventured farther afield. One 22-year-old refugee landed on Jeju island, a popular honeymoon spot off the coast of South Korea.
Let’s be clear, the terror in the Pulse club was not an attack on Western culture in general: It was aimed explicitly at gay people. Most heterosexuals don’t have the slightest idea what this really means.
Imprisoned in Israel since 2002, Marwan Barghouti may be the only figure who could unite all Palestinians. Israel must decide if it’s more risky to release him or keep him in jail. Barghouti offers a rare written exchange with Le Monde.
Among the Berber slaves of Mauritania, property of Arab masters despite their shared Muslim faith.
A day after an attack at a popular gay club in Orlando, Florida killed 50 people and wounded 53, international front pages Monday are mourning the victims of the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11. Here’s how newspapers from 10 different countries covered the attack: UNITED STATES New York Times Chicago Tribune NY […]
Other cities ban prostitution from residential areas with schools and playgrounds. Not Berlin. Here, it’s just part of the city’s “poor, but sexy” image.
TALISH — For some, this is a forgotten war. For others, it’s a frozen conflict. There are also those who consider it a proxy war between Turkey and Russia, with Moscow on the side of the Armenians, and Ankara supporting the Aliyev family, which has ruled Azerbaijan for the past half-century. But before all else, […]
-OpEd- Turkey has never been a stranger to terror attacks. But it seems that the spiral of violence we have entered since the June 7, 2015, general election is so severe that it cannot be compared to anything that came before. Worse: There’s no resolution in sight, no sign of an end to this violent […]
BOGOTÁ — For Latin America, the U.S. presidential elections have become a big-screen spectacle that affects the tone and register of local politics, in a region that combines democratic aspirations with an enduring admiration for its northern neighbor. The televised debate between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy generations ago began a process that has […]
Married under Sharia law in their native country, underage refugees pose hard questions for Germany’s legal and child welfare systems. German courts are divided.
Forced conscription for what many describe as “someone else’s war,” has led to widespread exodus and shuttered up draft-dodging for much of Syria’s adult male population.
A recent drug raid in a south-central Bogotá neighborhood that shares its name with the New York borough uncovers a veritable den of vice, violence and unfettered gang rule.
Chen Man’s release from prison has historical significance, writes Liang Yingfei.
Former employees from German gun company Heckler and Koch face charges in German court for illegal deals with Mexico. But were government officials complicit?
With the help of its Russian partner, Novatek, and the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), French energy giant Total has created an uprecedented liquid natural gas plant on the frozen Yamal Peninsula, some 370 miles north of the Arctic Circle.
As battlefield losses pile up for the Islamic State terror group, al-Qaeda eyes both the Sinai and Cairo for new attacks — and new recruits.
In Syria and its neighboring countries, an underground network of organ traders has sprung up, preying on the thousands affected by the five-year-long war by offering them desperately needed cash for nonessential organs.
FUWWAH — Stepping off a small boat as it docks along the Nile, Ahmed Khaled, a 22-year-old fisherman, looks dissatisfied. For the fifth time in just three weeks, he had carefully prepared the lures and rigs of his fishing equipment and set out in his sick father’s sailboat — only to come back empty-handed. “The […]
-Analysis- PARIS — There is something rotten in Europe. A kind of fetid wind, or foreboding gust, is blowing through. The far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) nearly won the presidential election, the best result for a far-right party since World War II. The FPÖ candidate, Norbert Hofer, might have shown the friendly face of […]
How a former fighter lost both his brothers: one to Bashar Al-Assad’s forces and the other to the Islamic State
MUNICH — Rick Henderson, a 56-year-old American, took out his mobile phone to show a blurred, 10-second clip from BBC of a young woman in France who is surrounded by men, and is being groped from all sides. “They are like wolves,” said Henderson, a self-defense trainer in Germany, adding that “women should never be […]
A troubling tale of how the European Commision stalled the regulation of potentially cancer causing chemicals
This African country produces more refugees per capita than any other. But there is method to the madness: Gambia’s dictator systematically banishes people and refuses to accept repatriation agreements. And he receives European funds for his services.
Since the conflict in Ukraine, Western military leaders are operating under the assumption that an armed conflict with Vladimir Putin’s Russia will eventually happen. Signs of tension are everywhere.
This week, President Obama will become the first sitting U.S. president to visit Hiroshima, the Japanese city that the United States nearly destroyed with a nuclear bomb in 1945. While the bombing is estimated to have killed as many as 150,000 people, Obama is not expected to apologize during his visit. It’s reasonable to ask, after more than 70 years, why not apologize for Hiroshima? One well-worn argument is that the bombing of the city (and the atomic bombing of Nagasaki that followed) was morally justifiable as it was the quickest way to end World War II — a conflict […]
OCUMARE — It’s midday on this Thursday, and hundreds of people are squeezing inside a supermarket in Ocumare, a poor city about an hour’s drive south of Caracas. Armed police officers are allowing people in, but just a few at a time, infuriating the multitude massed outside since dawn to buy corn flour at a […]
The far-right candidate may have lost the Austrian presidential election in the end, but the campaign has already changed the country for the worse.